Elyaqim Mosheh Adam • אליקים משה אדם

Gay Jewish–New Yorker and libertarian‐leaning classic liberal with some center‐right conservative views who is publishing on ▴ gay and ursine topics ▴ the public domain and freely licensed creative works ▴ Near Eastern, Central Asian, North African and Caucasian topics ▴ linguistics, particularly as relevant to the above populations ▴ Humanist, naturalist or Bright topics ▴ history, understood to include my own personal experiences in and occasionally out of my beloved native city.

17 March 2019

“THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.—One of the largest and most formidable animals known to natural history is the Hippopotamus or River Horse. Its short clumsy legs bear a body of great bulk and a tough hide, and its head is one of the most peculiar and repulsive possessed by any animal; the neck is short and very thick. The expression of ferocity in its face is a true index to its character. The native home of the Hippopotamus is in the large rivers of the northern part of central Africa. (Hippopotamus amphibius.)”

“Hippopotamus,” illustration by Friedrich Specht for Illustrated Natural History (Animals and Birds): Arranged for Young Readers, by Rev. J. G. Wood, 1899, as reprinted in Children’s Own Library, vol. 10, Miscellaneous Tales, ed. by J. Ellis Burdick, 1910. Digitized by the Internet Archive from the collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (In the public domain.) <https://www.archive.org/details/childrensownlibr10burd/page/108>

03 February 2017

I am extremely disheartened, if not frightened, by how many of my supposedly progressive online contacts on social media have lately been condoning violence against those with whom they disagree. First, many were posting to say that punching Richard Spencer was perfectly acceptable because he is a Nazi. Of course, Spencer’s views are reprehensible, but literally condoning violence against him sets a terrible precedent. In an age when so many get their information about current events solely from headlines or from unreliable sensationalistic sources, I anticipated that the next step would be to start calling people bigots, whether true or not, just to excuse violence against them. Sure enough, some I know are again justifying violence by demonizing Milo Yiannopoulos with a barrage of insults ranging from calling him a “Trump supporter” (which he is) to calling him a “white supremacist” (which he is not), all in the name of curtailing freedom of speech. Label someone a Republican or a conservative and many conclude they therefore have nothing of value to say; label someone a Nazi or white supremacist (even someone of Jewish background) and many conclude that a violent response is not only appropriate but necessary.

So what’s the next step? For decades, Islamists, their supporters and their apologists have been attempting to delegitimize and demonize Israel by spreading all manner of lies and distortions, including falsely blaming Israel, Zionism and the Jews for atrocities like ethnic cleansing, apartheid and even genocide, and then condoning slaughter of civilians by painting global terrorism as some honorable form of resistance for which Israel and the West are ultimately to blame anyway. I therefore predict an escalation in attacks on Jews worldwide, and that the Far Left and even so‐called progressives will leap to excuse it all away so long as the attackers call all the victims Zionists. With all the effort that has been put into convincing the world that Israel and Zionism are the most repugnant things on earth (in what has been called “the greatest smear campaign in the history of the world”), calling anyone a Zionist will make attacking him seem like the only reasonable response, and anyone who disagrees will be labeled a conservative or an Islamophobe. (I hope I am wrong about that.) Replacing freedom of speech with calls for violence against those with whom one disagrees is very dangerous indeed.

24 March 2016

🖼 The legend central to the holiday of Purim depicts a situation wherein allegations of anti‐Semitism are taken seriously and not categorically dismissed.

The illustration: “Esther confond Aman,” illustration by Gustave Doré from La sainte Bible, 1866, reprinted as “Queen Esther Accuses Haman Before the King” in “Haman Is Hanged on the Gallows Made for Mordecai,” The Bible Panorama or The Holy Scriptures in Picture and Story, Arranged for the Instruction and Entertainment of Children, as Well as Older Persons; Illustrating the Principal Events of the Old and New Testaments, with Descriptions of Them in Easy Words, [by William A. Foster,] Philadelphia: Charles Foster Publishing Co., 1891, 205. (In the public domain.) (Internet Archive) (Flickr) (Also Wikimedia Commons)

03 March 2016

🌬📷 By some ways of reckoning it, winter is over, but the weather here is certainly still wintery. Here are some of my recent photos showing that people in New York City can manage to look serious even when wearing a playful winter hat. And I write that as a New Yorker often in a mood as playful as my hats. (Photographs by Elyaqim Mosheh Adam, under a Creative Commons BY‐NC 4.0 license.)

11 February 2016

My keratocystic odontogenic tumor was finally cut out of me earlier this week, and now I have a large gap where it used to be that needs to slowly fill with the appropriate tissues. The procedure was carried out by three surgeons and was rather intense, including carefully separating my exposed inferior alveolar nerve from tumor tissue, but they put me back together so well that my jaw did not need to be wired and I can even speak fairly well. I am now recovering quite comfortably thanks to good medication. I am on a liquid diet for a few days but will be on a soft diet before the week is over. Also of note: At no point in time did anyone at the hospital ask me which three oral surgeons I find the sexiest in the whole clinic, yet those were coincidentally the very three who did the job.

The illustration

“Mr. Bear Came Down with the Mumps,” illustration by L. J. Bridgman for “The Strange Story of Mr. Dog and Mr. Bear—The Christmas Tree,” by Mabel Fuller Blodgett, St. Nicholas, Dec. 1915, 185. (In the public domain.) (Internet Archive) (Flickr)

09 February 2016

The time has finally come when the keratocystic odontogenic tumor (KCOT) about which I have been complaining for more than a year will be cut out of me. A few facts about my procedure:

— The tumor extends from my left wisdom tooth down my jawline to the further (right) side of my chin. Over the course of my long treatment, it was hoped the tumor would shrink. Although it has indeed shrunk, it got flatter and narrower but not significantly shorter. This means I still need quite a long incision for it to be excised, which I estimate from a tape measure held to my face to be at least six inches.

— Because this type of tumor is particularly aggressive, every last little bit of it needs to be scraped out, which necessitates removal of bone tissue at least a millimeter deep from parts of my mandible that are in contact with it. I will also need annual visits to an oral surgeon for the rest of my life to ensure the tumor doesn’t recur.

— There will be direct manipulation of my inferior alveolar nerve by my surgeons. Such intimate interaction with the nerves may leave me with some paresthesia on my face, possibly for the rest of my life. I admit I am concerned about whether my verbal articulation will be affected, and if so, how much.

— My jaw may be immobilized after surgery, and I will eat only a soft diet for a time. In preparation, I have stocked my apartment with soup, sauce, baby food, ḥummuṣ, yoqurt, butter, sour cream, cottage cheese etc.

I have great confidence in my surgeons’ abilities so I find I am not fearful. I will write about the recovery in the upcoming days as I expect to have more time to be online than ever before. See you later.

The drawing

Fig. 88, “Patient with dentigerous cyst,” uncredited illustration in Injuries and Diseases of the Jaws: The Jacksonian Prize Essay of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1867, 3rd ed., by Christopher Heath, Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1884, 192. (In the public domain.) (Internet Archive) (Flickr)

27 January 2016

After some of my friends requested information on my health and others expressed some confusion over it, I offer this health update.

• As you may remember, the x‐ray I had in August for sciatica incidentally revealed evidence of kidney stones, which led in October to a visit with a urologist who ordered another x‐ray and a CT scan so he could properly diagnose me. Much of November and December was spent correcting multiple billing, scheduling and authorization errors made by the health providers’ offices and by the insurance company, but I finally received the x‐ray and CT scan on different days earlier this month. When I was again seen by the urologist, the test results showed, not surprisingly, that I do indeed have kidney stones, and they are large enough that he recommended laser lithotripsy. Because I am in no pain and because I am facing significant oral surgery in the near future, we postponed my next urology visit until springtime.

• The last time I was seen by the oral surgeon in October, x‐ray and CT scan results showed that I had good bone tissue regrowth, but that the tumor itself hadn’t shrunk significantly. The aforementioned billing, scheduling and authorization errors, as well as the snowstorm, delayed the following visit, but it will be tomorrow (Wednesday), and based on our telephone conversations, the removal of the tumor on my jawbone is imminent, possibly within the next two weeks.

04 January 2016

The only thing that marred my otherwise wonderful extended New Year’s/Perihelion weekend was hearing in conversation that two different intelligent Jewish‐American atheist friends of mine have apparently fallen for the propaganda of fanatically religious Islamic extremists and their allies: One of them was accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” for issuing identification numbers, and the other was saying that radical Islam is no more a problem than extremism in any other religious group and that terrorism has nothing to do with Islamic doctrine but instead with economic disadvantages and a loss of “dignity” that make terrorists turn to terrorism in order to “shake things up.” This was saddening and disheartening but is also quite rare in my social circles.

10 November 2015

Saturday evening, I arrived quite early for a social engagement at One Mile House on Delancey Street on the Lower East Side and was standing in front of the venue wondering what my next step should be. Should I wait there or try to find something else to do in the meantime?

While I stood there, about ten emergency vehicles—police cars, ambulances and fire trucks—pulled up alongside me with their sirens wailing, and EMTs, fire fighters and police officers filed into the Bowery subway station. A little while later, a police officer emerged with a loudly crying witness to whatever it was that had happened in there. As a crowd gathered, people were helping to translate her testimony from Chinese for the policeman as well as apparently helping her contact some family members on her telephone. I overheard what some passengers and some emergency workers were saying, and it turns out that her companion was struck by an arriving train as he stood on the platform.

Soon afterward, the injured passenger was brought out on a spine board to a wheeled stretcher that was waiting atop the stairs and rushed to an ambulance. I later learned that he had been wedged between the train and the platform and that his fellow passengers were pushing on the train trying to free him and that he later died at hospital.

07 October 2015

So the sciatic pain about which I complained in August is gone, at least for the time being. However, the routine x‐ray of my lower back incidentally revealed what look like calculi in my kidney, so now I have an appointment with a urologist too. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. 🙂

02 October 2015

Today is International Day of Non‐Violence, World Smile Day, and one of the days of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (סכות), the feast of booths or tabernacles. One of the symbols of Sukkot is willow (ערבה ʻaraba), the leaves of which are said to represent the human mouth. So use your human mouth today by giving someone a disarming smile and thereby making the world a better place. 👄☺

“Who writes this stuff?”

Elyaqim Mosheh Adam (a.k.a. Mark) is a gay Jewish–New Yorker who promotes his photography, videography and writing here, and who may be reasonably expected to write on any combination of the following:

{The old description: Still trying to strike a balance between a mere cataloging of my experiences, rarely done in a timely manner, and writings about subjects that interest me (linguistics, history etc.).}